Campaigns & Elections

Who will get the chance to take on Trump?

And more coverage of key 2021 races

Campaign Confidential is a weekly newsletter that goes out on Wednesdays.

Campaign Confidential is a weekly newsletter that goes out on Wednesdays. Alex Law/City & State

Welcome to City & State’s Campaign Confidential newsletter, where Senior Reporter Jeff Coltin is covering the run-up to New York City’s hugely consequential 2021 municipal elections for mayor, City Council and more.

Weekly, on Tuesdays. Sign up here.

DA candidates expect to inherit Vance’s Trump case

Whoever wins the election to be the next Manhattan district attorney will inherit an office that processes tens of thousands of low-level misdemeanors each year. The next district attorney will also, most likely, inherit what may be the most high-profile and closely watched court case in the entire country, where more than 159 million voters on either side of the 2020 presidential race have a rooting interest: the anticipated prosecution of Donald Trump for financial crimes.

“As long as the work of the DA’s office and the current DA is pending, these are going to be things that we inherit,” said Tahanie Aboushi, one of eight candidates competing in the Democratic primary for Manhattan district attorney. “So if the investigation is still open, we’re not just going to come in and interfere with that, but we’re going to have an opportunity to actually have that inside information, assess (the case) and make a decision there.”

The stakes are high, but information about the case is limited. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s office reportedly intensified its criminal investigation of Trump’s personal and business finances once it became clear that the former president had lost his reelection bid and would no longer have the legal protections of the White House.

Which candidates say they have the experience to take on Trump? Read more here.

By the Numbers

414,000

The number of Instagram accounts following Lamor Miller Whitehead, who’s running for Brooklyn borough president. That’s huge. To contextualize with fellow Brooklynites, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams has more than 94,000 followers, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries has 141,000, and the Rev. Al Sharpton has 389,000. Miller Whitehead’s follower count may be artificially inflated – some of the accounts following him appear to be fake, and his account has gained more than 110,000 followers in just the past week. His campaign says his “embrace from New York’s Hip Hop community accounts for the rapid growth,” and sure enough, Miller Whitehead announced endorsements this week from Fabolous, Maino, Dame Dash and Foxy Brown – who is reportedly Miller Whitehead’s cousin. Could 414,000 Insta followers propel him to victory? Unlikely. His fundraising has been really weak, and Miller Whitehead, a Christian pastor and ally of Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams, served time in prison on identity fraud charges and was chastised by the Brooklyn district attorney’s office in 2014 for fundraising off a nonexistent initiative with the DA’s office.

Stringer the comptroller vs. Stringer the candidate

Gov. Andrew Cuomo criticized both Scott Stringer and Eric Adams last week for not talking enough about police reform. “You want to be mayor, what would you do about this?” he asked. “In concrete terms. A few months from a mayoral election, I don’t know what their positions are.” Can’t blame Cuomo for being confused. Stringer released a detailed policing plan this week – but on his government website as comptroller, rather than his campaign website. One rival’s staffer texted: “This is so transparently using govt resources to campaign. I legit had to double take.” Sure enough, adding any part of the plan to his campaign site might violate conflict of interest rules since it was compiled by government employees – but Stringer is avoiding controversy for now by simply not having any clearly accessible list of plans and policy positions on his campaign site.

Groundhog predicted an early oppo season

The “get to know the candidates” season is ending, and news outlets are starting to drop some pretty critical pieces on the leading mayoral candidates. Politico New York pushed a well-researched piece on Scott Stringer having it both ways with real estate developers. And the Daily News delivered a classic oppo dump on Eric Adams’ overseas trips sponsored by sketchy governments like China and Azerbaijan. But Andrew Yang seemed to dodge a Business Insider bullet. The Jan. 30 piece on the sexism and “bro culture” of his presidential campaign was kept behind a strict paywall. And soon after publishing, Business Insider added a lengthy editor’s note about sloppy sourcing, overstated evidence and uncorroborated anecdotes. Journalists: keep ’em coming. But keep your standards high.

Draw your own conclusions

While the state campaign finance disclosure website continues to be entirely unusable, a couple of activists have taken the city’s campaign finance data and highlighted only the political insiders. It’s called Project Red String, and it tracks donations to and from elected officials, staff, club members, journalists and more – basically, anyone who might read City & State. It was co-founded by two Very Online Gen Z operatives: Michael Sutherland, who’s a researcher at the Housing Rights Initiative, and Lucy Merriam, a CUNY Graduate Center student. And though it’s still in the beta stage, it’s an endlessly interesting tool for any donation detectives.

Gale’s Brew-haha

A stronger Gale blew into the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club’s meeting Thursday night, but members withstood the Lind – er, wind – and did not vote to revoke their endorsement of Sara Lind for City Council District 6 following Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer’s complaints. Some big names showed up in the virtual meeting to support Brewer – New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Manhattan Democratic Party boss Keith Wright, RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum and former Council Members Rafael Espinal and Rosie Mendez among them, per a tipster. But Brewer’s effort failed, and Lind kept the endorsement. Too early to start tearing up Broadway?

Endorsement Watch

Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas endorsed Dianne Morales for mayor – Morales’ first endorsement as someone’s top choice … City Council Member Farah Louis endorsed Eric Adams for mayor … United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500 backed Scott Stringer for mayor … comedian Amy Schumer endorsed Andrew Yang and is hosting a fundraiser with his campaign … Carlos Menchaca picked up his first two mayoral endorsements from City Council candidates Hailie Kim, who is running in District 26 in Queens, and Chris Sosa, who is running in District 5 in Manhattan … Menchaca also endorsed their council campaigns … Assembly Member N. Nick Perry endorsed Khari Edwards for Brooklyn borough president over his fellow Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon … the Professional Staff Congress union at CUNY endorsed a slate of council candidates, including Amit Bagga in District 26 … Bagga was also endorsed by state Sen. Jessica Ramos and former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon … CWA District 1 endorsed a slate of council candidates, including Mino Lora in the District 11 special election in the Bronx and Elisa Crespo in the District 15 special election in the Bronx … District Council 37 also endorsed a slate, including Eric Dinowitz in District 11 and Ischia Bravo in District 15 … RWDSU also endorsed Dinowitz … and Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer endorsed Lora … Council Member Mark Treyger endorsed Ari Kagan to succeed him in District 47 in Brooklyn … and the Bronx Democratic Party endorsed Althea Stevens over the party’s former political director, Yves Filius.

Poll Sight

The Hell’s Kitchen Democrats didn’t make their primary endorsements in a smoke-filled room – instead, 105 of their members voted online using ranked-choice voting, and shared the full results! Check that link for great visualizations of instant-runoff voting across eight races. In the mayoral race, notice that all of the voters who had Dianne Morales as their top pick had Maya Wiley ranked on their ballot too. Kathryn Garcia outperformed expectations with a second-place finish, and nobody was surprised to see Manhattan’s own Scott Stringer win the club’s backing. And for the data nerds – some rounds do not add up to 100% because of “no endorsement” votes.

The Hell’s Kitchen Democrats primary endorsement votes
Alex Law/City & State

Staffing Up

Lindsey Green has joined Kathryn Garcia’s mayoral campaign as communications director … Julia Savel has joined Maya Wiley’s mayoral campaign as director of rapid response … Ray McGuire’s mayoral campaign has hired Ny Whitaker as campaign operative, Rod Townsend as constituency liaison and Vinuri Ranaweera as policy associate … Katie Shane, deputy political director of the New York City District Council of Carpenters, is serving as campaign manager for Crystal Hudson’s City Council campaign in District 35 in Brooklyn … Ansley Pentz has joined Alexa Aviles’ council campaign in District 38 in Brooklyn as deputy campaign manager … María Di Franco Quiñonez is joining Sandy Nurse’s council campaign in District 37 in Brooklyn as field director … Saman Mahmood, former deputy district director for Rep. Max Rose, will be campaign manager for Mike Schnall for City Council in District 49 on Staten Island.

Got tips? Email JColtin@CityandStateNY.com or DM me @JCColtin

District Data

City Council District 1
Alex Law/City & State

City Council District 1 in lower Manhattan, covering neighborhoods including SoHo, Chinatown, the Financial District and the Brooklyn Bridge Park piers

Current council member: Margaret Chin, since 2010, who is term-limited at the end of this year

2010 census demographics: 45.1% white, 36% Asian, 12.4% Hispanic, 4% Black

Housing: 78.8% renter-occupied, 21.2% owner-occupied

2013 primary election results: Chin: 58.9%, Jenifer Rajkumar: 41.1%

2017 primary election results: Chin: 45.8%, Christopher Marte: 43.9%, Aaron Foldenaur: 6.3%, Dashia Imperiale: 3.9%

Who’s running: Susan Damplo, Jacqueline Gross, Susan Lee, Gigi Li, Jenny Low, Maud Maron, Christopher Marte, Denny Salas and Tiffany Winbush. Low is a longtime local power broker who works for Council Speaker Corey Johnson and has grabbed major endorsements from Rep. Nydia Velázquez, the New York City Central Labor Council and the United Federation of Teachers. A progressive in the field, Marte is leading in fundraising and has devoted supporters who almost helped him unseat Chin four years ago. Li, who’s currently Chin’s chief of staff, has the current member’s support, and recently got a boost from mayoral candidate Andrew Yang. And Maron, an education activist, has raised a lot of money while appealing to more conservative voters in the district.

Twitter Posting 

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.